When I turned 40, which was oh-so-many years ago, I made my first two-crust pie.

Well, honestly, it was my first any-crust pie.

And it wasn't even my crust. It was refrigerated pie crust, from the supermarket.

I couldn't have been more proud if I'd made the crust from scratch.

Which I never, for a single minute, considered doing.

I love the taste, texture and convenience of ready-to-roll pie crusts. I love that they're pre-sized for a standard nine-inch pie pan or ten-inch tart pan.

I love that you can freeze the crusts for up to two months, and then take them out of the box and let them stand at room temperature for an hour, and you're ready to make pie, or to cut them into smaller shapes for calzones, empanadas, or topping for a casserole.

Refrigerated pie crust does have a down side; it contains saturated fat that comes from partially hydrogenated lard (which gives it the "mouth feel" of old-fashioned crusts made with shortening) as well as food dyes, to which some people are allergic.

However, for those of us who are baking challenged, a package of refrigerated pie crust in the pantry puts pie within reach.

Directions

Preheat oven to 425°F.

Place the raisins and rum (or water and vanilla) in a small sauce pan, and cook over low heat for 30 minutes. Strain the raisins, discard the liquid, and set aside.

Press one pie crust into a 9-inch pie pan. Peel, core, and thinly slice the pears, and toss in a large bowl with the lemon juice. In a separate bowl, combine sugar, cinnamon, nutmeg, salt and cornstarch, and stir into the pears and raisins. Spoon the fruit mixture into the bottom crust, and dot generously with the butter. Paint the edge of the crust with a bit of the egg wash, or with water, and place the top crust over the pears. Press down lightly, and crimp the edges (make sure there's a good seal). Using a sharp knife, make a small hole in the top of the pie and also make 4-6 slits in the top crust.

Using a pastry or paint brush, brush the top crust with egg wash. Let it sit for one minute, and brush on a second coat. Place pie on the middle rack of the oven and bake 40-45 minutes. Pears should be tender and the crust a deep golden brown. (Note: If the crust is becoming too brown during baking, cover the edges with an aluminum foil "collar.") Let cool on a rack for 20-30 minutes, or preferably for several hours, before slicing, to allow the juices to set. Serve at room temperature.

Comments

Some people may swear by their own pie crust recipes - and, indeed, they are delightful - but who has that time? These are so amazing. So handy. Even for dumplings... can't go wrong. (Well... technically, you could, but it takes effort)

I also use bought pie crust pastry, life is too short etc, etc, LOL. My favourite pie has to be at the end of summer when the apples are fresh from the tree and my fingers are stained with blackberry juice. There is nothing like it after a productive day with lashings of steamy hot custarfd of course. Margaret,

My first apple pie was from the Fine Cooking magazine and it was really easy. The result looked just like the photo and tasted perfect! but i haven't had as much success as commercial frozen pie crust here in Oz.

I often wish the bottom crust were not soggy or gummy. My sister just gave me an antique pie pan with this stamped into the bottom: New England Flaky Crust Pie - Table Talk 10 cent deposit. It has 8 tiny holes in the bottom. I guess this allows heat to get to the bottom crust. Or come to think of it, maybe it's to allow steam to escape. I've only tried it once so far. Not bad. I'll keep trying. I'm with you on store-bought pie crust!

I failed Pie Crust 101 many years ago, actually my baking skills need to be perfected. There are a couple of versions of Fudge Pie that I am pretty good at. Guess what? One of them is crustless and comes
from a thirty year plus Southern Living Cookbook called Party. My children and husband love it served hot with a scoop of vanilla ice cream. Co-workers favor the other version with crust from Paula Dean. Sidenote: You are my hero, getting rid of cookbooks. I wish I could, but I am still in the collecting mode!

My first pie-crust attempt was also my first pie-attempt and consisted of a veganized Pear Frangipane Tart with a pâte sablée tart crust. I was 20 and making it for a friend's birthday. Suffice it to say that after three imperfect crusts (too dry, oddly salty, too little), a failed frangipane and pears that took forever to poach, I finally got it right and took it to the party... where no one really understood the Herculean effort represented by that pie! Since then, I've stuck to graham cracker crusts for all my pies.

I love an old fashioned apple pie, or peach. I am especially happy if there is some crunchy turbinado sugar on the crust.
Dorie Greenspan cured me of my pie crust worries - her good for almost everything pies crust is... good for almost everthing!
Rum raisin and pear sounds like a unique and grown up pie, delish!

I love Pecan Pie! I am a Georgia Girl (here 11 years, originally from NY) and I think I moved here just for Pecan Pie, which I only eat, about once every 5 years, because my behind will NOT allow it!
I love your Blog, and thank you for this giveaway!

My mission has been to perfect the art of the lemon meringue pie. I always say "I'm almost there, except for the crust." I remember, from my childhood, my mother making pie crust in quantity. She started (I think) with a pound of shortening and made A LOT of pastry from scratch. A couple of times, I've had the pastry in the freezer. It makes making a pie so much less of a production. Oh, for her recipe!

How nice of you to give away cookbooks! I am not great at pies, so it's something I could definitely stand to learn more about. I'd say my favorite has to be chocolate cream pie or chocolate pecan pie (in other words, the chocolate is more important than the pie!). And am I allowed to say that my favorite baking book is my own cookbook, Sweet Freedom (which will be published this May--whoo!)?

I've only ever dared make the pies that are explained on the back of the pie filling can. And of course I also purchase the ready to use pie crust. But this year I am determined to try some real pie recipies . . . but I'll probably stick to the refrigerator pie crust for at least another year. No telling what 2010 will bring!

I'm surprised no one has mentioned making pie crust in a food processor -- a short zap and you've got it. Then freeze the extras for crust on demand. Actually, I gave up on crust long ago, because of the soggy factor and the nutrition element. Something on top for the crunch works.
Cookbooks! always a temptation, especially since my husband finds them hard to resist. Many are wonderful books, super bargains or free from our recycling shed in town. We just bought another bookcase to help consolidate -- they're too scattered, getting better.

I've tried the refrigerated ones and to be honest, I don't care for the taste or texture. There are lots of good recipes for crusts, but the plain old Crisco one seems to come out best for me. The trick is to put your Crisco and flour in the freezer or refrigerator until they get real cold. Don't overwork the dough, and you'll come out with a perfectly flaky crust that will be the envy of your neighbors :)

My favourite pie is huckleberry. I make my own crust. My grandma taught me when I was a kid - half butter, half lard, which turns out a little less flaky than a crust made with shortening (still tender, just a bit less flaky) but tastes so much better.

I slaved over my first pie, apple, made the crust even picked the apples myself. Then it came time to bake. I had no clue how to tell when it was done so I put the digital thermometer probe in and started baking. Well 2 hours later the darn thing wasn't anywhere near hot (yes I turned the oven on, I checked, twice:-} the pie dish was hot but the thermometer was still reading warm. Perhaps I should have made sure the thermometer was reading in fahrenheit not celsius, doh! The pie was soup in a hollow burnt crust. Yuck

I absolutely love pears. We have two pears trees in our backyard and I'm always looking for recipes to use the harvest in the Fall. I've been giving tons of pears to my neighbors, made lots of pear butter as christmas gifts, but I'm thinking that a pear pie is a better gift to celebrate the harvest. Thanks for posting the recipe, Melissa!

My favourite baking book is the Cake Bible. I tried a couple of recipes and was really impressed with the results.

Thanks for posting another cookbook giveaway - love the idea of reusing/sharing books with folks.

Rum raisin pear pie...Yum. Not original but truly conveys my tastebud's imagination. I also have had great success with refrigerated pie crust. Having tried making my own crusts which usually shrunk away from sides of pie dish or were soggy in the bottom, refrigerated is just more fail proof.

Pillsbury Pie Crust has saved my family(and my sanity) from my disasterous trials of making my own crust. I'm going to try the pie, I think it sounds very yummy, just have to convince my husband that you can actually put pears, rather than apples,in a pie.

I love apple pie...especially with a really good crumb topping, like a Dutch Apple or Apple Streusel. I think I'm capable of making my own pie crust but I'm with you on the store versions being a good substitute. I'd rather make my own bread, where the difference is more evident.

When I was first learning to cook, one of the first things I made was apple pie with a crust from scratch. It was the best crust I ever had, but I forgot to write the recipe down.
I love cookbook giveaways. I'm also giving away copies of my new cookbook. Come on over for a chance to win. :)

And "Vegan Cupcakes Take Over the World" is amazing! They were made for my earth-friendly fashion show I put together last year, and no one knew they were vegan until they were told and all loved them!

haha! I use the refrigderated pie crust too sometimes... I was really craving a quiche yesterday and it was so nice to just pull some crust out of the freezer... I'm looking forward to Baked Goods Week! :)

I have used those pie crusts in a box too. They are pretty good. I love to make those cinnamon twists with them. So good. Never made a rum raisin pie though. Hands down a fav pie of mine is an apple pie with cheddar cheese crust. YUM

I love baking, and do so often, but rolling out dough scares me. Thus I don't make pies, or any cookies which require cookie cutters. I did try each once, and hated the results, so I've stayed away from such recipes ever since!

The truth is, my favorite pie is the one in front of me. Well, not entirely true...don't LOVE rhubarb or mincemeat but pretty much everything else is my favorite.
I've found a recipe with boiling water which makes an easy, flaky pie crust. Darn, I only have two pears today...I guess I have to go out in the rain to buy more. This looks yummy.

My favorite pie is pumpkin. I eat it for breakfast the day after Thanksgiving.
I love to bake, but I have to confess that I also use refrigerated pie crusts. I'm not thrilled about the lard and hydrogenated fat, but then I don't make pie often... One problem, though is that my son is a vegetarian, so no lard in his pie crust, please. I told him he was welcome to make a butter crust for the pumpkin pie last Thanksgiving, which he did (he is a great cook & bread baker), however, the crust didn't hold together well, and was very difficult to work with. In the end, it came out ok, but the pies made with packaged crust were much prettier. They all tasted great!

I will cook for days to make cassoulet. I will cure duck breasts in the fridge.
I will make jam two small jars at a time.
but pie crust daunts me. I remember my grandmother being persuaded to make me peach pie one day and how she helped me make for myself little thumbprint tarts with the leftover dough. It was all yummy but nothing I have dared to try.
Not yet.

My very favorite pie is a chocolate chess pie made at a restaurant near me. I'm sure it's not that hard to make, since it is basically chocolate pudding in a crust, but I've never tried to make it myself.

Well since my body can’t really tolerate most chemicals I have to make almost everything from scratch – hence the over the top pantry.

My favorite baking cookbook is “Baking with Julia Child” written by Dorie Greenspan. I have two of these books because the first one got used so much that I broke the spine before I realized that I should just copy the recipes and print them out. I too was a frustrated, challenged baker and really purchased the book for the bread recipes. I was on a bread baking crusade at the time. Gotta say here that the recipe for White loafs is ingrained in my brain, this is truly dream white bread.

I have made about 2/3’s of the recipes in this book and have never been disappointed.
There is stuff in that book I could not have even thought possible for me to master like puff pastry, brioche and the one that really wow’s the crowd Danish pastry, which is beyond easy, as long as you keep everything really cold. The difference for me was that the process was fully explained (why you do one thing as opposed to another)

There are two recipes for pie crust a basic recipe and then there is Pasta Frolla, you just can’t mess this up no matter how hard you try, OK if you really put your mind to it I’m sure you could. Pasta Frolla is my de facto for pie crust and usually I’ll make more then one recipe and freeze what I don’t use (I can always find a use for the scraps). BTW you can sub pretty much any fat for the butter, like I said it’s pretty flexible.

Lydia, I am eyeing that rum raisin pear pie and I can see it in the near future. I’m going to try coating the bottom crust with apple jelly and then putting a layer of ground hazelnuts on the bottom (only because they seem like they would fit and I’ve got them left over)

Lydia, I am with you on refrigerator pie crust use. My mom makes WONDERFUL pie crust, light and flaky, so so good, but alas, I have never even tried. Guess Mom's crusts are too much to live up to. Sigh.

My favorite pie is apple or strawberry rhubarb, okay so I have two favorites. I have never had luck making pie crusts so I leave that to my husband and I make everything else. If it was up to me I would buy frozen but he's convinced homemade is best.
I have used the Pillsbury Book of Baking for years and love it (so much that it is now in several pieces) I think it might me time to try something new.

I stumbled upon this interesting place quite by accident while searching for something for a friend (I've enjoyed my visit here so much, I've now forgotten what it was that I was browsing for in the first place.).

I occasionally make a crust from scratch, but as I become lazy in my old age I often just use a pre-made one. It's the filling that's important.

I have a large collection of cookbooks and I really don't want to part with any of them, but as I have come to use the WWW more and more for recipes I don't know what to do with my huge collection of cooking magazines that I never seem to use anymore.

I love pie, and my Grandmother was a cook in the Northern California Lumber camps in the early years (1916ish). She baked a few pies one day when she had a bit of free time. That was it, from then on she needed to make a pie for each man each day.

Years later I would watch her, she scooped and pinched and sprinkled, and by magic she made pie crust. I watched her often and I have the "touch" also, but I need to bake regularly to keep the touch accurate!

wow, I would never have thought you would not be a baker. Wait a minute, you bake cookies and decorate them and give them away! Clearly you are a baker.

I love pies - I have a chocolate one that is awesome, especially when made with quality dark chocolate. I am also in charge of the pies for Thanksgiving - one pumpkin, one pecan, one apple/cranberry and one with mincemeat. Usually, I make my own crusts, because I found a recipe from an old Sunset that makes it really easy.

Hope I win one of your cookbooks, although honestly, my cookbook collection could stand to be edited too!

It's so funny that you mentioned having baking books but don't bake. I am able to do basic baking but also preffer frozen or refrigerated pie crusts and I must have 20 or more baking books. Everything from cake decorating, artisan bread baking, whole wheat baking...you name it! Why? I think part of me hopes that the close proximity of the books will, by osmosis or some other means, make me a better baker. Well, it's just a theory :)

I made an apple and sausage pie to impress and seduce my new boyfriend. Instead of regular sausage, I subbed in chorizo and topped it all off with a quiche-like layer. It was amazing, and 5 months later, he's still talking about it. Yay for man-grabbing pies!

You're baking...you're really baking. This makes me want to give you a hug---and I have no idea why.

I wish someone would do a study and figure out why it is some people prefer cooking to baking and vice versa. I (by far) prefer baking, but in reality, am probably a better cook. Who knows...but it's interesting nonetheless.

This Rum Raisin Pear Pie sounds delish---always looking for interesting recipes featuring pears (I think pears are largely under-utilized) and this one fills the bill. To say I'm excited to see what you bake next is an understatement, but mostly, I hope you are having FUN!

Never made a double pie crust, & your links are gorgeous ones. Anything with walnuts makes me smile!
PS I think I've kind of sorted out the problem Lydia, & in my excitement am at a loss of wortds...xoxoxo

Made my very first pie just a few months ago.
Granny Smith apples (YUM) and I used crushed vanilla wafers in place of some of the flour (double YUM). I felt adventurous enough just baking something, so I definitely used the store bought pie crusts - what's not to love about that?!?
Thanks

I'll bet if I kept refrigerated pie crust in the house, I might actually make pie more often! They work particularly well with rustic tarts, where you put the filling in the center and fold up the sides over the filling in a pleated manner. It looks like you worked for hours!

I think Martha's Pate Brise is the best option if you are going to attempt this on your own. Or the crust that is suggested in the River Cafe Cookbook. But I have no problem whatsoever with the store bought stuff! I'd like to throw my hat in the ring for the giveaway!

I almost always use the *gasp* store bought pie crust. It saves SO MUCH time and doesn't make a big flour-y mess of your kitchen. Yes home-made tastes great but it's really hard to tell the difference (imho).

I used to be really good at making pie crusts. I even traded crust-making tips with a roommate for bread-making tips. I haven't been able to make a good pie crust since! I usually succeed in filling the pan, but it's crumbly or full of patches or too short, so I must admit to often falling back on frozen crusts. Mostly I use them for quiches, as I'm trying to avoid making too many sweet pies these days.

The pie looks great and I love the sound of the rum raisin pear. For me, I think I'd be hard-pressed to choose between sweet potato pecan and strawberry rhubarb...although really, whatever pie is in front of me is my favorite! ;-)

Thank you for this giveaway - I should be doing the same, but like another commenter, I'm still in the collecting stage. And, without purchased pie crusts, there'd be no pies in this house!! My husband loves lemon meringue and I like French silk pie.

I made brownies from scratch pretty often when I was growing up, I'm pretty sure I even had the recipe memorized at one point. Other than that I'm really not one to bake much. Usually nothing more than a boxed cake mix if I really need a cake for something. I'm more likely to buy baked goods than make them.

I would feel confident in saying that I'm a baking queen. I can make just about anything you want. However, I DO NOT MAKE MY OWN PIE CRUST!!!!
Talk about a weirdo!?? That would surely be me.
My favorite pie to make is a butterscotch and I use good ole Pet Ritz.
It has never been anything less than amazing!
Bring on some good cookbooks!!!

Well, I have to say that hands-down my favorite pie is the 100% from scratch Chocolate Cream Pie my Mother-in-Law makes. I also do not do pie crust...but she does, and it is amazing. The crust is from scratch, the filling is from scratch, and it is a slice of chocolate heaven topped with meringue! After that, give me a warm slice of Apple Pie a la mode and I'm a happy women!

When I have the time I do enjoy making my own pie crusts, but as the mom of a toddler and a newborn I just don't have time! I totally agree that the refrigerated pie crusts are fantastic and SO convenient.

I discovered those pie crusts a while ago and they rock! I do have fond memories of watching my grandmother in her farm kitchen making pie crust from scratch for her "best apple pie you ever had!" Although no one ever wrote the recipe down for the pie or crust. I did receive her 1947 edition of "Better Homes and Garden" cookbook. Which started a lifelong cook book collecting addiction for me. hundreds of cookbooks later my favorites are often the ones put together as fundraisers from a local church or community service groups. I like to wonder about who "mrs judy so and so" was...while I bake her "best-ever banana bread recipe."

I love to bake, and more recently learned I love to cook as well, but I have never tackled a pie crust. The funny thing is that my partner, who doesn't cook or bake much at all, is the champion pie maker!

About soggy crusts: This happens because most pie fillings have a lot of moisture. All you need to do is pre-bake the (bottom) pie crust until it is lighty tanned. Or you could just chill the whole cooked pie in the fridge and eat it cold, if you are one of those cold-pie people, like my husband. The fat in the crust will firm up again, so no sogginess.

I understand how convenient a store-bought pie crust is, it's what I always use for pâte feuilletée. But maybe you should try a recipe for a pate sablee, and you'll see it's the simpliest thing ever. Just take a bowl, put some soft butter, flour, sugar, and 1 egg, mix with your hand, and that's it! And if you don't want to mess your kitchen, you don't have to roll it, you can press it directly in your pan. believe me, it changes everything. (plus, you can also freeze it for up to 2 months, and have it ready whenever you need it!!). I hope I convinced you to try...

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Welcome to The Perfect Pantry®

My name is Lydia Walshin. From my tiny kitchen in Boston's Chinatown neighborhood, I share recipes that use what we keep in our pantries, the usual and not-so-usual ingredients that spice up our lives. Thanks so much for visiting.